Folly 2
by Frenesi.Z
Summary: Remember when Daniel trucked some un-translated goods to Giles as his vacation?  His success has some repercussions.  Now SG-1 needs Giles to fix it - with out them having to have Giles having to sign on the dotted line - but what will they find?
1. 1

This is the promised continuation to Folly. And hopefully better edited. This takes place at the very very very nascent beginnings of B:tVS ep. Passions. I don't own a single bit of it. I just wanted to throw them in a pool and see who needed the float-ies and which ones wanted to play splashie - splashie (occasionally with deadly intent) with each other. Again: love feed back and notes. Again: I have this arc mapped and it will be complete, but perhaps not as speedily as Folly as I want to develop this one further. And again: please enjoy ;)

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SG-1 was together participating in an after mission report with Hammond when the alarms across the base started spinning: "Unscheduled Off-World Gate Activation"

All five exchanged glances, Hammond standing first, the four a partial second later.

"Was there anything missing that can't be covered in your after action reports?" Hammond asked.

Jack shook his head, Daniel answering, "No, no. That about covers it."

Hammond nodded, "Dismissed. Let's go see who's at our door-"

The five entered the control room, Walter announcing "It's SG-5's ID."

"They were on PX2-394, weren't they?" Daniel spoke up, the five ranging around the window overlooking the embarkation room. SG-5 spilled out of the blue event horizon at a run, clanging down the metal ramp deep inside the mountain, fleeing from something billions of light years away.

"They were" Walter confirmed, his voice level even if adrenaline was beginning to raise his heart rate.

Next flaming arrows rained after SG-5 into the embarkation room, Mann yelling "Down" as the team flattened themselves where ever they were, Mann dropping off the ramp on the left, rolling flat as he too cleared himself out of the trajectory path.

Walter shoved his palm over the control panel, the iris starting to close while Hammond yelled: "Close the iris! Close it now!"

The iris spun closed around the gate, its metal petals spiraling closed - and then seizing, remaining open at a circumference of a foot and shuddering as it ground to close the final distance. The five members of SG-5 wearily picked themselves up, gathering together before turning to look back at the iris, the electric blue of the event horizon shining eerily thru the eye left open in the center of the grinding shield. The soldiers guarding the gate also slowly lowered their weapons, carefully looking over SG-5 and the gate, at a momentarily loss...

Hammond hit the intercom, "SG-5, what's happened?"

Dixon turned, craning his head back and up to address the control room "No idea, Sir."

"Any immediate medical needed?" Hammond asked.

All five shook their heads, "No sir" Dixon responded.

"De-con, then with me. What exactly were you up to just before hostilities escalated?"

"Ballinsky was reading the rocks" Dixon reported, already heading for the double thick steel doors that connected the gate room the rest of the base.

Hammond turned to SG-1, his eyes settling on Jackson placidly - if it weren't for the tick of muscle connecting his jaw to his skull one might think Hammond was considering a piece of pleasing art - "That doesn't happen to be you're work, does it?"

Daniel nodded, "I think so."

Hammond looked down, then back to SG-1: "This takes immediate priority. Any idea why the iris isn't closing?"

Daniel glanced out the window, then back to the General, "No, Sir, none at all" as Carter shook her head and O'Neil and Teal'c regarded the General with blank facades.

"And the worm hole remains engage for 32 minutes?" Hammond asked with an eye still on the embarkation room.

"Correct, Sir" Carter responded.

Hammond hit the com again, "Stay sharp."

The soldiers guarding the room ranged out again, weapons down but ready, eyes backon the grinding diameter of the iris.

"Carter, want to see if you can solve whatever" Hammond waived his hand at the gate, "is causing that?"

Cater gave a sharp nod and was gone.

"Daniel" Hammond started, but Daniel was already nodding, moving for the door, "I'll get my work."

"I'll go with him, Sir" O'Neil offered, leaving with Hammond's nod.

Jack followed Daniel out into the hall, the pair moving at a jog as Hammond's voice broadcasted over the intercom "Siler to the control room".

"Does this have anything to do with what you brought to your friend from England who lives in California?" Jack asked.

"Most likely" Daniel agreed, pulling open the door to his office. An angry looking Muskie, frozen under a slim, weathered arch of a branch, glared at the doorway. Jack gave the thing a friendly waive while Daniel, ignoring the fish completely, headed for the drawers lining one of the walls of his office.

Jack closed the door to the office, giving them some privacy from the current crisis taking the attention of the base. Jack took Daniel's chair, watching as his friend quickly gather a light handful of papers from a folder. Daniel tapped the drawer shut with his heel as he walked to his desk, spreading out the papers across the table.

"This is it?" Jack asked, looking at the rubbings, then two sheets of paper, lines filled in notes written in two hands, and one of them Jack recognized as Daniel's cramped script.

"This is it" Daniel confirmed.

Jack squinted at the papers, and then at Daniel, "I barely even remember PX2-394."

"That's because we were only there for an hour" Daniel replied sourly.

Jack leaned back, looking at Daniel, "That was the one with the" Jack pointed his finger around the floor, and then his fingers wagging elaborately around Daniel's face "that caused the…"

Daniel glared, "Which is why SG-5 wore masks. You and Sam were effected too" Daniel reminded Jack.

"Is that why you only have four pages of rubbings?" Jack looked again at the desk.

Daniel nodded, "I took these from the markers around the gate. We never made it any further."

"Because the" Jack made another elaborate, finger wiggling gesture making Daniel frown.

"No wonder we lost at Charades."

Jack huffed, "How was I supposed to know Teal'c's mime was so evolved? I still can't believe Carter got Plan 9 from Outer Space."

"While we failed miserably."

"There's nothing wrong with my Marilyn Monroe" Jack defended.

Daniel paused to deliver a another look, then went back to gathering what it was he wanted.

"I got your John Wayne" Jack continued, "Maybe it's your fault you didn't get my Marilyn Monroe. Maybe you're the weak link in our duo."

"Jack, I don't think this is the time to rehash Charades strategies."

"So, what have you got on PX2-394?"

Daniel looked over the papers, gathering and tucking them in a manila folder, and headed for the door, "Not a lot, but enough to hopefully have a key to translate what ever Ballinsky brought back."

"Think it'll fix our gate?"

Daniel shrugged, "If it doesn't, maybe it will help us understand where we went wrong so we can go back, make friends, have them stop what ever they're doing without our side ordering a nuclear warhead thru."

Jack nodded, pulling open the door for Daniel, joining him in hall, the general bustle of the base accommodating the men's hurried pace as they headed for a conference room.

An hour later, Daniel, Cameron, and two other base linguists were all working on every detail Cameron Ballinsky could recall as well as everything he'd brought back. The wormhole was still engaged, and the iris was still seizing, grinding in an attempt to close with the diameter of a foot remaining open in the center.

There was a brief knock on the door, Teal'c entering the conference room with a handful of arrows, "Daniel Jackson, these are marked deliberately. Perhaps they have more significance than simple weapons." Teal'c opened his hand, spilling out the arrow that had rained into the embarkation room after SG-5.

The each linguist at the table carefully took one, studying and comparing the pictograms burnt into the wood as well as the guiding scales at the end of the shaft.

"I recognize one of mine. It's also in the rubbings I took off the side of the sunken amphitheater" Cameron shared.

"And not dedicated to one of the Egyptian Gods" Paul nodded, "So, this being some Goa'uld trick is unlikely."

"Well, that's the good news" Jack commented, watching Daniel work, Daniel's furrowed brow growing deeper, worrying Jack as Daniel remained immersed, "the bad news being that our Gate is out of commission until we fix this and we have 4 teams off world."

"The next team is not due back until Four Hundred Tomorrow. As per protocol, they will dial the Alpha site when they cannot connect here" Teal'c recited.

Jack nodded, meeting Teal'c's gaze, "Carter and Siler still can't close the Iris?"

Teal'c shook his head, "They are also unable to disengage the wormhole."

Jack made a displeased noise, his eyes going back to Daniel again. He clapped a hand on Daniel's shoulder, startling Daniel, grinning around the room congenially, "Daniel. I need you to help me with something."

Daniel looked up at Jack, his eyes a bit glazed behind his glasses, "Jack - "

Jack nodded, already hauling Daniel to his feet, "This is really important. Isn't it, Teal'c?"

Teal'c inclined his head, pulling open the door, the eyes in the room looking curiously between Daniel, Jack, and Teal'c at the door, and Daniel let himself be pushed out of the room, Teal'c shutting the door behind them.

Paul, Cameron and Ron all exchanged glances, looking to Daniel's empty seat. "Think Teal'c knows something?" Ron asked, the greenest of the group.

Paul shrugged, gathering back the papers he was working with, "Who knows when it comes to SG-1."

"But, Carter, she's at the Gate, with Siler" Ron pointed out.

"Not much longer" Paul murmured, "Not if O'Neil's got something up his sleeve."

"But we've got all the intel" Ballinsky gestured around the table.

Paul just snorted, going back to his work.

Teal'c lead the way to the nearest empty office, ducking in, flipping on the lights, making a pleased sound as Jack pushed Daniel in ahead of himself, closing the door. "Think Captain Straifort will mind us borrowing his office?" Jack posed rhetorically.

Daniel swatted away Jack, standing with his back to the corner, his hip at the desk, and this way he could keep an eye on both Teal'c and Jack, "Why am I here and not back there, translating?"

Jack folded his arms, rocking back to lean against the door, "I was just thinking, as brilliant as all our people are, maybe you can make a phone call to your friend who already read it."

Daniel raised a hand to adjust his glasses, then stopped, his hand almost there, and let if fall, "I've thought about that. I just can't see Hammond letting me take a field trip to California to visit a friend with classified documents. A bag full of projects is one things, but an active mission - like this-"

Jack shrugged, "We invite him here?"

Daniel shook his head "No. He'd never agree to it. He was very clear about that."

Jack tilted his head, "Why? He hiding something?"

Daniel grimaced, then grinned: "Jack, he worked with me on a dozen off-world translations. He didn't bat an eye when I told him no questions allowed. Ten to One he know's these aren't from Earth." Daniel dropped.

Jack thought a moment, considering; "He knows?"

"Languages, they grow, change, evolve" Daniel explained; "Rupert knows enough about language to know the ones we translated are no longer native to Earth" Daniel explained.

"But you didn't tell him?" was Jack's caveat.

Daniel's grin grew, "He never even asked. So, yes: I'm sure he's hiding things - but he let's us keep our secrets so I say let him have his."

Jack nodded, "K. Fair enough" Jack narrowed his eyes at Daniel- "What do you need to do this?"

"Everything."

Jack gave Daniel the _look_.

Daniel shoved his hands in his pockets, "Copies of everything- and definitely the arrows."

Jack exchanged a glance with Teal'c, Teal'c nodding, "I have set aside four of the arrows."

Daniel though a moment, then, "I guess its enough to start with."

"They have identical markings to the four I turned over to the room" Teal'c shared, Jack already moving away from the door, pulling it open, looking into the hall.

"You could have opened with that" Daniel groused. "Daniel, I have duplicates of the arrows" -he demonstrated for Teal'c as Jack moved the trio into the hall-

Jack waived his hand, to shush Daniel, "Hall's clear. Teal'c grab the copies, I'll get Carter and permission from Hammond. Danny, pack what you need."

"How are we going to get there?" Daniel asked, following Jack cautiously into the hall.

"I thought we might fly" Jack offered lightly, heading towards the control room. "Pack light" He threw over his shoulder.

Daniel looked at Teal'c, wary, "How light?"

Teal'c smiled, "Extremely. We are taking your fighting planes. I have been promised the controls the duration of the flight."

Daniel was grateful of the shower he'd had in De-Con. His hair might be at odd angles and fluffy - but he was clean and BO free - "I'll call Giles". He prayed the brash, beautiful brunette didn't answer - Cordelia - and would be no where to be found once they arrived. There was something about her that kept him regressing to a lanky, inept, gangly pre-teen that he loathed no matter how hard he fought -


	2. 2

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Giles peered hard at the wrapped spines of the books ranging up and down shelves, both high and low; he stared them down as if he was preparing to interrogate them: why are you out of order?

He voiced it too, then: "Why are you out of order?" but very softly.

As if from overly far away he heard the phone at the library counter ringing; Giles straightened, the sound normalizing, listening as Xander apparently answered: Gods help him. Rupert took to his feet to quickly to arrive at the bannister overlooking the study tables, relieved to see Willow was the one at the phone.

Rupert delivered a firm, chastising look to Xander while the boy chanted out entirely too cavalierly "Sunnydale Pizza Shack: You want pizza, we got Pizza-" he was even balanced precariously on two legs of the chair, the wood creaking it's complaint to any that might listen while Willow answered the phone much more appropriately "Sunnydale High School Library; Willow speaking?"

Giles waited, Xander cracking the chair back to the blessed four legs that it was meant to carry weight on with a winning smile up to Giles, Willow glancing up and caught Giles' gaze and then back down to the counter: "Yes. Yes, he is- do you want - Oh. Oh Kay."

Willow raised her glance again to him, and this time she offered a small smile: "It's for you" she shared. The smile was a good sign; it ruled out a rather large number of possible callers - such as Mrs. Trumble in the English Department -

He waisted little time on the stairs; he hadn't dared phone the counsel about Angelus just yet; nor reach back to any contacts from his seedier days of youth - not that after Ethan - "Yes? Giles?" Not that he couldn't hope the council might already know Angelus was at his door step and save him the trouble of trying to explain-

"-Ah. Hi. It's Daniel..."

Giles let his eyes fall closed and swallowed back the nascent, irrational hope smoothly, opening his eyes the next moment: "Daniel. Hi. How are you?"

"I hate to do this but I really need your help."

The class bell rang out. Rupert waited out the second of percussive dinging, directing a rather proprietary look at Xander until Willow raised the teen, grabbing up his arm and his bag and pulling him for the doors, him dragging his feet with leaded steps all the way thru the halls.

The ringing ended with a rush of sound in the halls outside, Rupert clearing his throat: "Tell me what you need and I'l try to help as best I can" he offered.

"I'll tell you what I can when we get there but do you remember the Talenti?" Daniel's voice cracked over the line.

Rupert nodded to the empty room: "It was the small group of markers, the one we thought might be giving directions?"

"Yeah" Daniel agreed; "We were right. Some of my people were assigned to go to one of those destinations and now we need to know more."

Rupert's mind caught on Daniel's memory jog and brought back the rest of that bit of translation "It was of an aramaic lingual family, yes?" he checked.

"That's it" Daniel confirmed, already sounding reassured.

Rupert wondered what on earth had happened to solicit Daniel calling him -his breath catching, then spoke: "You said: _when _we _get there_" he repeated, "How many of you are coming?"

"Four of us. We can meet at your condo?" Daniel pressed.

Rupert glanced around the library, thinking; "Fine. Tomorrow is Saturday, I can pick you up at the airport-"

"Actually we're coming now. We'll be there in a coupe of hours." Daniel corrected.

"Hours?"

"Hours" Daniel confirmed.

Rupert sighed aloud, "Right. Call when you arrive, I suppose. We'll start at the library then, too. I have some books here I want to start with" he capitulated.

"Thank you" Daniel breathed, deflating. "Thank you" he repeated again, more graciously, cutting off the line.

Hundreds of miles away, Giles carefully replaced the handset. Again: the bell sounded, the noise in the halls already diminished. Forget Pavlov and salivating dogs: admire Schools Bells herding Teens from room to room - desk to desk - and as if summoned by that thought the library doors pushed open, Buffy striding in.

She barely glanced at him, moving immediately for the study table, surrendering her bag to the floor, folding herself into a chair as her head came to fall gracefully on to her folded arms.

Giles watched, concerned, quietly coming over once she had settled. "I thought you had class this hour."

Buffy turned her head so one eye and half her mouth appeared to him: "Miss Calendar will write me a pass."

He raised a brow in response.

Buffy relaxed her neck and just her head listed back towards the table, her eye closing tiredly; "I need sleep and she owes me."

"Ah" Giles said softly. "Well, just this once" he excused. He took up her book bag in hand, walking with it to his office; "Might as well stretch out. Come on…" he lead.

Buffy rose wearily, her docile obedience more worrying than anything else as Giles watched his Slayer pass him in the doorway, head for the couch, and promptly curl up with her head resting on the armrest.

From the doorway, Giles set her bag just out of sight, "Yes, well…" and then pulled the door shut behind him. Sleep would do her good. He considered his library; it was about to serve as the crisis room for Daniel's team. He wondered if he could send Willow and Oz to pick up a book or two from his condo for him and he supposed he ought to prepare a list of texts to pull for Daniel's people. He ought to have asked for a more specific arrival time: it was just after two and sunset was at seven : forty eight. Nearly six hours more of sunlight and Daniel sounded like he'd be arriving as soon as he and his team could manage.

That considered he began to set up the library for hour six - Mr. Gotting and his history class. He intended to leave them to it and hide in his office, give himself a chance to brush up on more watchers' diaries, see what useful tidbits might present themselves for him of his predecessors' battles. He didn't mind so much now Quentin had sent him to America with box upon box of diaries to "study and learn from"; Quentin's high-handed insult had some felicitous consequences. Giles must remember to thank the man; nothing would annoy Travers more. He headed back into the stacks- habit- to make sure things that shouldn't been seen were in their proper places, pausing and pulling out a small pamphlet as well as a squat, thicker hard cover he hoped would be useful for Daniel.


	3. 3

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A pair of F14s touched down cleanly on the runway at the military base bordering Sunnydale, the sun glinting off the blunt wings and bubble cockpits. Seated behind Sam in the second Falcon, Daniel pulled off his mask with a minimum of struggle, glad to be breathing with out the hindrance, glancing around the ground while Sam steered them across the airfield with as much grace as she'd handled the plane in the air. Just in front of them Jack and Teal'c were leading the way, taxiing towards the hanger the tower called out to them. In the air between Colorado and California the coms between the four of them had been infrequent, but, landing, Daniel felt a longing to actually be trained to join a wing of one of these things…

Which would never, ever happen.

Sam flipped around controls, talking with Jack and the tower. "Welcome to Sunnydale California" the Tower announced thru the head sets to the four of them while Sam slowly taxied parallel to Jack, both lining up in front of an open, empty hanger. A hiss of hydraulics followed the pop of the latch and the canopy opened up, fresh air spilling in as two mechanics in grey coveralls jogged forward.

"Sirs. Welcome" one shouted up.

"Keep on standby" Jack asked. "We're hoping to leave sooner rather than later."

The two exchanged a look, but an answer shot back promptly, "Yes, Sir."

The other mechanic nodded into the hanger, "There's a bunk room there, too, sir."

Jack nodded, "Captain."

Daniel unclipped his harness, Sam already standing, throwing a leg out to climb down out of the thing. Daniel followed more slowly, his joints a bit stiff, gratefully handing off his bag into the ready hand one of the mechanics midway down his climb. He arrived on the tarmac to find Sam, Jack and Teal'c all in a circle, Sam quizzing Teal'c on his opinion of their fighter.

"I would have liked to run a few maneuvers" Jack shared, leaning back, squinting against the low angle of the sun. Then Jack shrugged, glancing at Daniel as he retook his bag and slung it over his shoulder, shuffling over to join them.

Teal'c was smiling broadly, "I confess, I have much missed the freedom of the air and of space."

Jack chuckled, his eye on Sam, "The things we give up."

Teal'c continued, "It has been worth my freedom. And the freedom I hope to someday bring to the rest of my people."

"I miss being up in the air too" Sam confided.

Daniel stopped between Sam and Teal'c, turning to face Sam: "You used to fly? I didn't know that."

Sam nodded, "I am air force" she reminded him.

"I know that. It's just, … I thought you came from the pentagon…"

Sam glanced to Jack, then away, "I did."

Jack caught her look and looked down for a beat before changing his focus to Daniel, "So, we're told there's a car for us out front. Where to?" The four began walking into the open hanger, Jack heading for the set doors on the far side.

"Sunnydale High School" Daniel announced, "Rupert said to meet him there."

"We're doing this at a High School?" Jack nearly stopped, but recovered quickly. "Don't you think the guy's house would be better?"

Daniel shrugged, "We did a fair amount of work at both places. Besides, students don't really seem to use the library so we'll practically have it to ourselves… that and it has enough space for us to work comfortably in."

"-Just the students that know how to hack into Carter's computer inside the Mountain" Jack amended.

"Better to have them around than off making trouble?" Daniel offered.

"Sir, we have benefitted already" Sam broke in. "Willow Rosenberg has helped Siler and me find weaknesses in our networks we had overlooked or failed to anticipate. Any idea if she will be around? I would like a chance to meet her."

Daniel shook his head, "No idea. I didn't really have the time to say much to Rupert besides "We're on our way" and he said to meet him at the school."

Jack made a noise, rolling his eyes. "What about the other ones? They sound - off-"

Daniel shook his head, "Jack, like I said, I barely even saw them. They're teenagers; they kind of kept to themselves-"

"Except that one night you said a pair of them interrogated you and that Willow read your stuff…"

"Jack" Daniel stopped, Jack and Teal'c both stopping with him, Sam turning to regard her team, "interrogated wasn't the word I used, and, and, -and they're teenagers and this is California. Living on Abydos is less of a culture shock."

Sam shook her head with a slight smile, turning forward again making her way towards the facilities as Teal'c and Jack exchanged a look, Jack giving up a half of a crooked smile as he clapped Daniel's shoulder, "I actually believe that. Look's like Carter's left us the bunks to get into our civvies in."

The men opened the marked door into the long, narrow room, exposed cinderblock room. Daniel carefully placed his duffle on one of three squared away bunks. Teal'c closed the doorway as Jack opened up the small black duffel he'd packed, handing over denim and a black henley to Teal'c, the same to Daniel, and unrolling the same for himself.

Daniel eyed the denim, recognizing it from his emergency stash from his office, but held up the black long-sleeved tee for inspection. "What are we? The Bobbsey Triplets?"

Teal'c tilted his head, considering this, stilled with one pant leg on, one off, then looking to Jack, "What are these? Bobbsey Triplets?"

Jack shot a glare at Daniel as he head popped thru the shirt, pulling it down, "It's Twins and Daniel didn't mean anything by it? Did he?"

Daniel just shrugged, unzipping his jumpsuit. "Doesn't really matter. I guess we'd stand out no matter what we wore into town."

Teal'c again paused, this time reaching out to accept a baseball cap from Jack, looking to Daniel again, "Why does this concern you?"

Daniel shook out his legs in the denim while reaching his arms out into the sleeves and pulling it on, straightening it, his hair and his glasses as the thought: then answered, "I don't know, exactly. This just isn't a place I want to stand out in…."

Jack pulled open the door as Daniel took back up his sack, holding it as Teal'c, then Daniel, then he left the bunk room. "Relax Daniel. Besides, denim and black are time honored apparel choices. We'll be fine."

"This isn't Colorado, Jack. Or Minnesota. Wardrobe works a bit differently here" Daniel reminded, following Teal'c as Teal'c held open the next door, the door that lead outside to the front of the hanger where, as promised, a large black four-wheel drive was waiting for them. And, waiting next to it, Sam, standing at ease, her arms crossed, looking over the airfield and wearing denim and a black long sleeve tee.

"I'll drive" Jack announced, "Daniel, you navigate."


End file.
